It Seems That The St. Simonians Once Made Overtures To Lady Hester.
She Told Me That The Pere Enfantin (The
Chief of the sect) had sent
her a service of plate, but that she had declined to receive it.
She
Delivered a prediction as to the probability of the St.
Simonians finding the "mystic mother," and this she did in a way
which would amuse you. Unfortunately I am not at liberty to
mention this part of the woman's prophecies; why, I cannot tell,
but so it is, that she bound me to eternal secrecy.
Lady Hester told me that since her residence at Djoun she had been
attacked by a terrible illness, which rendered her for a long time
perfectly helpless; all her attendants fled, and left her to
perish. Whilst she lay thus alone, and quite unable to rise,
robbers came and carried away her property. {19} She told me that
they actually unroofed a great part of the building, and employed
engines with pulleys, for the purpose of hoisting out such of her
valuables as were too bulky to pass through doors. It would seem
that before this catastrophe Lady Hester had been rich in the
possession of Eastern luxuries; for she told me, that when the
chiefs of the Ottoman force took refuge with her after the fall of
Acre, they brought their wives also in great numbers. To all of
these Lady Hester, as she said, presented magnificent dresses; but
her generosity occasioned strife only instead of gratitude, for
every woman who fancied her present less splendid than that of
another with equal or less pretension, became absolutely furious:
all these audacious guests had now been got rid of, but the
Albanian soldiers, who had taken refuge with Lady Hester at the
same time, still remained under her protection.
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